Intel, one of the world’s largest technology companies, has applied for a patent for an accelerator of mining in ASIC chips for bitcoin. The application is called «Accelerator hardware for bitcoin mining with optimized hashing and hash Manager internal data bus».

The patent application was filed in September 2016, but the information about it became available only in recent days. However, the leader of the microelectronics industry will not be so easy to be drawn into the scandal around the «wrong» increase the productivity of mining chips, as happened a year ago, Bitmain and its ASICBOOST.

Intel claims to have found more reasonable and economically efficient way of mining bitcoins. The patent States that the development can reduce energy consumption by 35% while reducing financial costs and the mining of a larger number of bitcoins. The document says:

«Because the software and hardware for bitcoin mining uses the method of «brute force» for repeated and infinite functions, SHA-256, the process can be very energy intensive. The options described in the document to optimize operations by mining bitcoins at the expense of reducing space used and power consumed by the equipment».

The application Intel explains that one of the most expensive and difficult steps in any mining — a search for a 32-bit field. The value is set to the hash of the block contained a random code or a set of zeros (bits field).

The traditional 256-bit hash, which is stated in the document, smaller than the «predetermined threshold value». It involves two main computational blocks: a hash Manager and a hash. Both units work together to combine multiple 32-bit words and 32-bit additions, which can lead to lower energy consumption.

Randy Copeland (Randy Copelan), a partner of Intel and President of Velocity Micro, said that the new accelerator Intel may change the situation in the cryptocurrency market for the better. Copeland explains:

«As soon as this new technology Intel will enter the market, more and more people are again engaged in mining, because it will again become profitable, reducing the market value of coins and finding a new market balance.»

This application is not the first attempt of Intel to enter the cryptocurrency market. Last year, the wallet developer Ledger and Intel signed
a cooperation agreement, which has caused debate
in the community, as some were of the view that such a partnership can result in failure. Earlier this year, Intel also filed
a patent application on developing a blockchain system for copyright protection of digital images.